ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up in Hawaii, surrounded by water (both physically and geographically), Christy Lee Rogers has developed a unique sensibility and style by focusing on the under-water experience as one that is both constraining (no air, limited time, limited visibility, resistance to movement) and incredibly freeing (freed from gravity, from noise, and from the context of the world that typically surrounds us). After years spent shooting underwater photography at night, she has mastered the direction of lighting, costumes, models, and choreography, in a process that is akin to cinematic film production in its complexity. (She has also made films underwater, but the photography predates them.)

Like film and theater, her scenarios are staged, but they also document a performance that one cannot completely control and is taking place in real time and space under rather extreme conditions. All this is done in the service of creating a photograph that captures the sense of freedom, joy, and tragedy that define us as humans. When discussing her work, Rogers describes:

...elaborate scenes of coalesced colors and entangled bodies that exalt the human character as one of vigor and warmth, while also capturing the beauty and vulnerability of the tragic experience that is the human condition... What I want more than ever is to express and inspire hope and freedom, a sense of wonder and tranquility, to create a safe place to dream wildly, and most importantly to inspire the idea that there are still mysterious, impossibly beautiful things on Earth—not solely in our imaginations.

ABOUT

Christy Lee Rogers works have been exhibited internationally from Paris, London, Mexico City to Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, and are held in private and public collections throughout the world. She has been featured in International Magazines, including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle Decor, The Independent, and Fahrenheit Magazine, among others. Rogers’ "Reckless Unbound" is currently housed at Longleat House in the UK; the stately home, which is the seat of the Marquesses of Bath and also home to Renaissance gems of the Italian masters, like Titian’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt. Rogers’ art has been featured on several album covers, and in 2013, her images were selected for the 2013–2014 performance season of the Angers-Nantes Opera in France. Originally from Hawaii, she currently lives and works in Nashville, TN, where she also works as a mother, film-maker, and musician.